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Big 12 Morning Five: 02.23.12 Edition

Posted by dnspewak on February 23rd, 2012

It’s hard to believe that Bedlam was last night. In a game that meant almost nothing to either Oklahoma State or Oklahoma‘s lackluster postseason hopes, the Sooners ran away with a 13-point win that at least one writer considered fairly entertaining. That’s the thing about these rivalries. OU has fallen flat in Big 12 play, but it found new life on the defensive end and held the Cowboys to just 12 first half points. Click on that link and look at the face of Romero Osby– you think he’s not excited to beat Oklahoma State? That’s college basketball at its finest, even when the competition on the court doesn’t quite measure up.

Now that Kansas has taken care of business in College Station, it no longer needs to hide behind the “don’t-look-ahead” theory. There’s nothing standing in the way of Missouri now — the Jayhawks can talk about the Tigers all they want. So can columnists, too, especially ones with strong opinions. If you need any proof that this rivalry is bitter, just listen to this writer: “Missouri has never been a good neighbor to Kansas and they still aren’t. Down through the years MU’s hierarchy has caused as many problems as possible for KU — off the field and court.” Harsh. But that’s not all: “Kansas will expose an overrated Missouri team this Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse.” Yep, it’s the Border War all right.

On the other side, Missouri needs to recover from a shocking home loss to Kansas State in this Border War match-up. A Big 12 title isn’t out of the question yet, but the Tigers need to win out to at least earn a share. That begins with Saturday’s game, a tough task considering Missouri hasn’t won in Lawrence since 1999. It’s also the last Border War game ever (for the near future, at least), adding to the stakes and fueling the home crowd.

In light of our selection of Wayman Tisdale to the “Big 12 Mount Rushmore” team, this blog provides a little more analysis into the legend himself. At Oklahoma, Tisdale won three Big Eight Player of the Year awards and earned All-America distinctions as a freshman, sophomore and junior. These days it’s almost unfathomable to think that a player so dominant in his first season in college would actually stay for another year, let alone two. And it’s also interesting to consider that Tisdale’s instant success as a freshman was largely unheard of during that time period. These days, we expect freshmen to contribute and dominate, but Tisdale was one of the first to set that trend.

It wasn’t easy, but Iowa State overcame a sluggish first-half effort to knock off Texas Tech last night in a game it absolutely could not afford to lose. The win gives the Cyclones 10 Big 12 victories, which, as the article mentions, is the first time that’s happened in 10 seasons. The 72-54 final margin is hardly how this game played out, though. Tech led at halftime and hung around for most of the second half, which is good news for Billy Gillispie as he tries to build on the first season of his rebuilding job.